Bay Area Businessmen Underwrite Siddhanta Press Expansion

San Francisco members of the Hindu Businessmen's Association have gone ahead this month with buying or donating the various lumber, insulation, roofing and finishing supplies needed to complete the new Siddhanta Press shop at Sivashram. Renovations and additions to the existing building were begun in September of last year under the auspices of the Sivashram Building Fund but were not completed by January when the Building Fund was closed for 1979. The printing equipment to be housed in the completed building in the future was stored in a temporarily walled in and air-conditioned section of the new shop to await further developments. Some of that equipment is now in use despite its small quarters, making the completion of the new shop a first priority.

In February of this year a complete building supplies list for the shop was forwarded to the San Francisco H.B.A. at their request and they have been collecting and buying the materials in the weeks since then. They report that the supplies will all be on hand as of April 17th when the last of their purchases is received and will be shipped soon after to Kauai. The further work in completing the new building will also be largely done by H.B.A. members from San Francisco and possibly other areas, coming to Sivashram for a few weeks during the summer months, most probably just prior to or after the Guru Purnima celebrations in July. It will be a special construction project financed and supervised by the H.B.A. to complete Phase I, - the basic structural shell, its renovation, and extended floor area, doors, windows, and roof. Phase II and III will be the new plumbing, electrical, interior work, shelving, flooring, etc.

Other H.B.A. activities during the month have centered on further research and planning toward the publishing of the English translation of the Tirumantiram. This project has been handled thus far by East Coast H.B.A. members.